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Apple, after only six months, added Flash storage to ALL iMacs


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Apple, after only six months, added Flash storage to ALL iMacs
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psmith2.0
Mr. Vieira
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Tennessee
 
2013-05-02, 17:08

Thank you. I'd like to think some of the bitchin' and squawkin' I provided played a role.

But seriously...wouldve been nice from the get-go.

256GB for $300, 512GB for $600. A little price-y, but since these models are unable to be (easily) upgraded by the user after-the-fact, I'm okay with that "convenience fee".

For the first time, I can now ponder an iMac again and feel good about it. Gonna run the doors off my current one, but whenever the time comes to replace it...now I know I have some workable options!
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Kraetos
Lovable Bastard
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Boston-ish
 
2013-05-02, 17:43

The 21.5" iMac honestly insults me. I think we've actually talked about this before. "Oh so you don't want a screen so large it would blot out the sun? Well then you must not care about things like speed, storage, memory and color accuracy!"

Same thing with the 13" Retina Pro. Just because I want to shave off two inches of screen space does not also mean I'm interested in shooting my graphics performance in the foot.

Apple seems to get this with their mobile devices... the iPhone 5 is both smaller and more powerful than the iPhone 4/4S. The iPad mini is not artificially hobbled, they jammed as much horsepower as they could into that thing without sacrificing weight, which was it's primary design goal.

But on their Macs? It's been this way for as long as I can remember. Bigger is invariably better and smaller is invariably worse. It's nice to see them make this concession on the Fusion drive, but why the hell is the iMac still shipping with an awful TN panel in 2013? Why doesn't it have user-accessible RAM? Why can't it be wall mounted? Why doesn't it have the same processor BTO options as the 27"?

Just because I want it small doesn't mean I want the corners cut. Apple, of all companies, should be able to grasp this.

Logic, logic, logic. Logic is the beginning of wisdom, Valeris, not the end.
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PB PM
Sneaky Punk
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Vancouver, BC
Send a message via Skype™ to PB PM 
2013-05-02, 17:50

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kraetos View Post
The iPad mini is not artificially hobbled, they jammed as much horsepower as they could into that thing without sacrificing weight, which was it's primary design goal.
So putting two generation old tech in the iPad mini isn't artificially hobbled in your mind.

That's said I agree with you about the iMac/13"MBP etc. Every company does this though, so the fact that Apple does isn't surprising.
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Kraetos
Lovable Bastard
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Boston-ish
 
2013-05-02, 18:33

Quote:
So putting two generation old tech in the iPad mini isn't artificially hobbled in your mind.
Two generations old? The iPad mini uses an A5 and the iPad 4 uses an A6.

The iPad mini has the hardware specs it has so Apple could cut the size and the weight of the thing in half (half!) while maintaining battery life. The iMac has no such constraints.

Logic, logic, logic. Logic is the beginning of wisdom, Valeris, not the end.
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Partial
Stallion
 
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Milwaukee
 
2013-05-02, 18:44

I feel like it should have an SSD or at least a hybrid drive by default. Once you go SSD, you cannot go back. I know that if I was to buy a 1K computer, I would expect an SSD, even if it's small. Hybrid drive might be the way to go, 128GB SSD and 512GB HDD or something.

...and calling/e-mailing/texting ex-girlfriends on the off-chance they'll invite you over for some "old time's sake" no-strings couch gymnastics...
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Matsu
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
 
2013-05-02, 18:59

Haswell should fix mobile Mac graphics woes.
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PB PM
Sneaky Punk
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Vancouver, BC
Send a message via Skype™ to PB PM 
2013-05-02, 19:04

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kraetos View Post
Two generations old? The iPad mini uses an A5 and the iPad 4 uses an A6.

The iPad mini has the hardware specs it has so Apple could cut the size and the weight of the thing in half (half!) while maintaining battery life. The iMac has no such constraints.
Yes, the same one that shipped with the iPad 2. The A5X shipped with the iPad 3 last year. Thus the iPad mini is using two generation old tech, unless I'm missing something.
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Partial
Stallion
 
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Milwaukee
 
2013-05-02, 20:16

Quote:
Originally Posted by PB PM View Post
Yes, the same one that shipped with the iPad 2. The A5X shipped with the iPad 3 last year. Thus the iPad mini is using two generation old tech, unless I'm missing something.
You're spot on. Though, it has been shrunk down and improved upon, but yeah, it's older tech. I don't think it has to do w/ artificially keeping specs low, I think it has to do w/ cost. My guess is the new chips run cooler and use less power, but are significantly more expensive.

...and calling/e-mailing/texting ex-girlfriends on the off-chance they'll invite you over for some "old time's sake" no-strings couch gymnastics...
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PB PM
Sneaky Punk
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Vancouver, BC
Send a message via Skype™ to PB PM 
2013-05-02, 20:40

That's my guess as well.

As for the iMac, which this thread is about (sorry for taking it off topic!). I think in some ways Apple has done the same thing. That small box of the 21" model may be less capable of taking the warm air from operation out, so maybe Apple keeps the specs lower for that reason?
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wtd
Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
 
2013-05-05, 02:04

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kraetos View Post
but why the hell is the iMac still shipping with an awful TN panel in 2013?
I agree with you on most of your points, but the 21.5" iMac has an IPS display. I don't think any generation iMac with the 21.5" display has ever been TN. You may be thinking of the 16:10 20" iMacs.
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Kraetos
Lovable Bastard
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Boston-ish
 
2013-05-10, 14:14

Quote:
Originally Posted by PB PM View Post
Yes, the same one that shipped with the iPad 2. The A5X shipped with the iPad 3 last year. Thus the iPad mini is using two generation old tech, unless I'm missing something.
A5 and A5x are considered part of the same "generation." Remember the "x" variants of A chips have the same CPU and clock speed. The only place they're different is on the GPU, and the only reason they have an upgraded GPU is because they need to power a retina display.

A theoretical iPad mini with an A5x would perform identically to a standard iPad mini, since the extra graphical horsepower is wasted without a retina display. (You might get some extra gaming performance out of it. Maybe. But that's it.) So it's a little disingenuous to consider the A5 to be "two generations old" when the thing that's setting it back an extra generation by your definition is something the iPad mini neither needs nor would benefit from.

Logic, logic, logic. Logic is the beginning of wisdom, Valeris, not the end.
  quote
Partial
Stallion
 
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Milwaukee
 
2013-05-11, 00:36

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kraetos View Post
A5 and A5x are considered part of the same "generation." Remember the "x" variants of A chips have the same CPU and clock speed. The only place they're different is on the GPU, and the only reason they have an upgraded GPU is because they need to power a retina display.

A theoretical iPad mini with an A5x would perform identically to a standard iPad mini, since the extra graphical horsepower is wasted without a retina display. (You might get some extra gaming performance out of it. Maybe. But that's it.) So it's a little disingenuous to consider the A5 to be "two generations old" when the thing that's setting it back an extra generation by your definition is something the iPad mini neither needs nor would benefit from.
Is all rendering of tables done on the CPU? I know the standard method of making high performance UITableViewCell objects in iOS is to create the view, then grab an image of the view with core graphics and store it in memory, then paint that image as needed. Since it's core graphics, I'm pretty sure that would run on the GPU, but I'm not certain by any means.

...and calling/e-mailing/texting ex-girlfriends on the off-chance they'll invite you over for some "old time's sake" no-strings couch gymnastics...
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PB PM
Sneaky Punk
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Vancouver, BC
Send a message via Skype™ to PB PM 
2013-05-11, 01:31

On most tablets the CPU and GPU are in one package. They are still two separate processors though. The A5X saw no architectural differences, but had a more powerful, newer GPU in the package than the A5.
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Brave Ulysses
BANNED
I am worthless beyond hope.
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
 
2013-05-22, 01:53

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kraetos View Post
A5 and A5x are considered part of the same "generation." Remember the "x" variants of A chips have the same CPU and clock speed. The only place they're different is on the GPU, and the only reason they have an upgraded GPU is because they need to power a retina display.

A theoretical iPad mini with an A5x would perform identically to a standard iPad mini, since the extra graphical horsepower is wasted without a retina display. (You might get some extra gaming performance out of it. Maybe. But that's it.) So it's a little disingenuous to consider the A5 to be "two generations old" when the thing that's setting it back an extra generation by your definition is something the iPad mini neither needs nor would benefit from.
Originally posted oct 19, 2012

Quote:
Originally Posted by Brave Ulysses
Quote:
I don't see any reason we should expect the smaller iPad to be weaker. By almost all rumors it will have identical specs to the larger iPad with the possible exception of the retina display. Which will likely see feature parity in the next round of updates. No one as far as I know is expecting the smaller iPad to be slower or have any other feature losses from the bigger iPad. So, no, I certainly wouldn't say that is exactly the intent of the smaller iPad
Originally posted by Kraetos
Really? Aren't the rumor sites pointing at iPad 2-like specs? A5 processor, 512 MB RAM, etc?
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